How To Make A Successful Change

The changing of the season brings to mind the fact that many of us are in the midst of major changes, as we strive to live a healthy lifestyle. And in doing so we need to answer two questions: What's your goal, and where are you in your quest?

Many people I hear from on my blog are in the beginning stages of making a positive, healthy lifestyle change, whether it's to lose weight, lower cholesterol, or anything else. This is always an exciting time because the prospects of the end results—such as feeling healthier or boosting your energy—are invigorating. It's important, however, to start your adventure on the right foot. Here are my tips for successfully making a healthy lifestyle change.

Step 1: Commitment

The first step is making a real commitment—crossing over from "I'd like to make a change" to "I'm going to do this and no one can stop me." This means you're fully committed. It helps at this point to be verbal about your decision with your close friends and family, so they can support you and not unknowingly sabotage you. It's tough getting to this stage, so don't become discouraged.

Once you feel that conviction, you can take the next steps to keep yourself moving forward towards a healthy lifestyle.

Step 2: Identify Your Goals

First, identify your long-term goal. For instance, do you want to lose 10 pounds, or would you like to lower your blood pressure?

Then set some short-term goals: I want to be able to run one mile; I want to add five servings of fruits and vegetables to my diet each day.

I always say that every journey needs a map, and setting out to change your lifestyle is no exception! Having a vague idea of what you want for yourself and how you want to get there won't get you far. Write your goal down so you can see it each day as you embark on making change.

Keep checking your road map and make sure it's updated by routinely reevaluating your course. Life may force detours, but with a sound strategy, you can stay on course.

I also encourage my clients to take baby steps and grow into their change. Remember it takes approximately 60 days to change a habit, so stay realistic. Unrealistic expectations set you up for failure and frustration. Despite what today's society tells you, there are no quick fixes when it comes to changing into a healthy lifestyle.[pagebreak]

Step 3: Maintenance/Continued Improvement

Some of you have already succeeded in reaching your goal and are in the process living a healthy lifestyle. Bravo!Now you need to maintain what you've accomplished and push even further ahead. Remember, we live in a world full of temptations and it's easy to slip back into bad habits if you don't stay focused on why you made the changes in the first place. I find it helps to take time once in a while to reflect on the changes you've made and how they have affected your life in a positive way. For example, remember how hard it was to get moving those first few times and how great you feel when you exercise now.

The key to maintaining successful habits is to keep monitoring your progress and not to lose accountability to yourself. You may not be tracking your progress every day anymore, but once in awhile you still need to take an inventory of your habits and your healthy lifestyle. You need to be able to be honest with yourself and catch yourself if you start to see bad patterns sneaking up again.

This also is a good stage to try to become even healthier by setting new goals and trying new things. Perhaps you never dreamt you could do 20 minutes of exercise, but now you can. So it might be time to increase your intensity or add a few more minutes? Or it could be good to try a new form of exercise, such as Pilates, intervals, or weight training.

The biggest goal here is to be the best you can be. If you think about it, being mediocre is as close to the bottom as it is to the top. I can reflect back on many changes I made in my life and they all required striving to be something better than I was at that moment.